Ahead of a rescheduled meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has added two new names to his hand-picked roster of national vaccine advisors.
The new appointments to the committee are Florida internal medicine and pediatrics specialist Sean G. Downing, M.D., and pediatrician Angelina Farella, M.D.
Downing is a Georgetown University School of Medicine graduate who has practiced primary care for over two decades, according to an HHS release. Farella, meanwhile, owns a Texas practice, A Brighter Tomorrow Family Health and Wellness, and has served in clinical roles spanning private practice, pediatric urgent care and locum tenus (temporary staffing).
The ACIP has been in a state of upheaval since Kennedy wiped the prior slate of 17 vaccine experts clean last June, restaffing the panel with his own picks, many of whom have a history of communicating vaccine-skeptical views. Since then, the advisory panel has taken votes to change U.S. immunization guidance, such as weakening recommendations for COVID-19 shots and tweaking guidance around the hepatitis B virus vaccine for newborns.
The panel additions “reflect the commitment of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to transparency, rigorous science, and diverse clinical expertise in guiding the nation’s immunization policies,” HHS said in its release.
“ACIP must scrutinize the evidence openly, ask hard questions, and earn the nation’s confidence through transparent deliberation,” Kennedy commented. “Dr. Downing and Dr. Farella bring decades of real-world experience caring for children, adults, and families—and that frontline perspective is essential to making recommendations that are grounded in gold-standard science and worthy of public trust.”
Amid ACIP’s reshaping, recent U.S. vaccine policy changes have sparked legal pushback from a coalition of 15 Democrat-governed states, with a lawsuit targeting Kennedy and the CDC for the “unlawful” gutting of the panel. A group of public health leaders has also filed an amicus brief warning of an “urgent threat” to children and the general public’s health caused by recent HHS actions.
The newest additions to the panel come before an ACIP meeting planned for later this month, when the group is expected to weigh in on COVID-19 vaccine injuries and long COVID, according to a listing in the Federal Register. The panel was originally expected to meet in late February before it was abruptly postponed.
In late January, the ACIP’s vice chairman, Robert Malone, M.D., seemingly teased that the committee’s next meeting would see major steps taken toward removing mRNA COVID vaccines from the market, a potential move endorsed by Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
“I’m not deaf to the calls that we need to get the COVID vaccine mRNA products off the market,” Malone said in a video posted on X. “All I can say is stay tuned and wait for the upcoming ACIP meeting. If the FDA won’t act, there are other entities that will.”
The ACIP’s votes on vaccine recommendations are not set in stone until the CDC director signs off on them. In January, the CDC suddenly removed recommendations for six of 17 vaccines on the U.S. childhood immunization schedule without a prior debate at ACIP. The move gutted recommendations for shots against flu, COVID, rotavirus, meningitis, hepatitis A and hepatitis B.
As for the stance of Kennedy’s two new ACIP members, Downing’s Sarasota-based concierge medical practice offers adult and pediatric vaccinations, while Farella’s A Brighter Tomorrow Pediatrics lists pediatric immunizations as one of its services.
Farella, however, pushed against COVID vaccines in a 2021 appearance on Newsmax, suggesting that “we can use all kinds of things to treat this virus,” such as vitamin D and zinc.
“That’s how you crush a pandemic. Not by vaccinating,” Farella said at the time.
The ACIP will meet on March 18-19.
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